To some, scrub is not the most beautiful of wilderness areas to behold.

Next to other Florida ecosystems -- a vast, glistening wetland or a majestic slash pine forest -- scrub can be sterile-looking and scruffy.

Coastal scrub is characterized by diminutive trees, such as the scrub oak, and clumps of woody shrubs that range from tousled thickets to patchy groundcover. Bald spots of nearly barren, white sand pockmark the terrain.

``(It`s) nasty stuff, in a way,`` said Randy Kautz, biological administrator for the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. ``On a hot dry August day when it hasn`t rained, it is not a very hospitable-looking place.``

Others see scrub differently.

``It can look real pretty to someone into plant-system diversity and unique ecosystems,`` said Brian Barnett, a biologist in the game commission`s Office of Environmental Services.

Amid the Florida`s landscape of rapidly disappearing habitats, scrub is revered by biologists and conservationists who for years have waged a highly visible campaign to save all that is left in the state.

In Boca Raton, the fate of a 289-acre slice of coastal scrub, dubbed the Yamato scrub, is in the hands of city residents, who on Tuesday will vote on a proposal to float $12 million in bonds so the city can purchase nine environmentally sensitive properties.

The Yamato scrub, bisected by Clint Moore Road in the city`s northwest sector, is one of the ``few comparatively large chunks`` of scrub left in southeastern Florida, said Dan Austin, a Florida Atlantic University botany professor and scrub expert. Development, he said, has eradicated most of the state`s scrubland.

``What`s left is scraps,`` Austin said.

``It`s pretty depressing,`` Barnett said, ``when you look at the entire picture: If the state doesn`t own it, it`s gone.``

Just in Palm Beach County, remaining scrub accounts for 5 percent of what once existed, Barnett said. At the turn of the century, the county had an estimated 41,000 acres of scrub, he said. In 1984, an inventory showed 1,140 acres, he said.

The disappearance of scrub stems largely from its attractiveness to developers. Amid the state`s preponderance of wetlands, scrub is high and dry -- a safe bet for building.

``It looks like ... a place that ought to be a shopping center,`` Kautz said. If the Yamato scrub is not bought for preservation, development plans call for most of it to be replaced with an office and industrial park -- the proposed Boca Commerce Center.

``There is no sense (among developers) that there is anything sacred about (it),`` said Fred Cichocki, president of the county`s Coalition for Wilderness Islands. ``It is just square footage to be built upon.``

Conservationists argue that scrub`s value as developable land is far outweighed by its value as a thriving remnant of Florida`s primordial past.

Age, though, is not the only reason scrub is deemed unique. Scrub is home to more endemic species of wildlife -- plants and animals restricted to a particular region -- than any other Florida habitat.

Some of those species are now scarce.

On the Yamato tract there are 13 varieties of plants that the state of federal government lists as endangered, threatened or a species of special concern, said Gary Knight, a biologist with the Florida Natural Areas Inventory in Tallahassee, a non-profit organization dedicated to bio- diversity.

Among the rare plants there are bromeliads, which drape the limbs of sand pines like stringly shawls, plus scrub mint, Indian pipes and Curtis` milkweed.

One plant, the nodding pinweed, is known to grow only in seven locations in Florida, Knight said.

The Yamato site is home, too, to dwindling populations of scrub animals. Among the most visible are the gopher tortoise, scrub lizard and scrub jay.

Because of its desert-like terrain, scrub communities are held in esteem by scientists as a study in drought survival.

Some have leaves that droop downward to reduce exposure to the sun. Others are aided by symbiotic relationships with other plants. Lichen that grows on the roots of sand pines, for example, snags nutrients from rainfall and shunts them to the trees, Kautz said.

SCRUB

-- WHAT IT IS: A form of wilderness that occurs on old sand dunes and ridges exposed thousands of years ago when the ocean receded and uncovered mainland Florida.

-- WHERE IT IS: Generally restricted to Florida, there are pockets of scrub left along the state`s central ridge (interior scrub) and along its coastal areas (coastal scrub).

-- SIGNIFICANCE: One of Florida`s most ancient ecosystems and well-adapted to arrid conditions. Among the state`s habitats, it contains the greatest number of endemic species -- animals and plants restricted to a particular locality.